New York: An intruder stabbed and wounded five people at a rabbi’s house here during a party to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah late Saturday evening, officials said Sunday.
The victims, all Hasidic members of the Jewish faith, were transported to local hospitals – two in critical condition – the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) tweeted after receiving a call at 9.50pm (local time).
A suspect has been taken into custody and a vehicle safeguarded, a spokesman for the NYPD told this agency.
Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, said in a statement that he was ‘horrified’ by the ‘despicable and cowardly act’, and had directed the State Police hate crimes task force to investigate.
“We have a zero tolerance for anti-Semitism in NY and we will hold the attacker accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” tweeted Cuomo.
‘CBS New York’ reported that a man brandishing a machete went into the rabbi’s property in Monsey here in this state, an area with a large Jewish population, and knifed at least three people before fleeing.
“I was praying for my life,” witness Aron Kohn, 65, told the ‘New York Times’, describing the knife used by the attacker as ‘the size of a broomstick’.
The attack comes as US police battle a rash of attacks against Jewish targets.
Last year a white supremacist walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 people, the deadliest attack ever committed against the Jewish community in the United States.
While earlier this month, six people including two suspects, were killed in a Jersey City shooting at a kosher deli, which authorities said was fueled in part by anti-Semitism.
A report in April from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stated that the number of anti-Semitic attacks in 2018 was close to the record of 2017, with 1,879 incidents.
AFP
